Jews...God's Chosen people?

Question

Well, no one disputes that the Jews are God's chosen people, right? They were descendents of Abaraham.They descended from Judah, one of the twelve sons of Jacob. But that's just it...there were twelve sons! There were eleven other brothers besides Judah who were blessed by God (along with Joseph's two sons, Ephriam and Mannasseh). So why are the Jews the only ones considered as God's chosen people, the ones considered Hebrew? Where are the other eleven brothers located?

Answer 1

The term Yehudim applies to all the people that either descended from Abraham through Isaac or converted and joined them spiritually.

Maek is wrong when he says that the first time we see th term Yehudi being used to describe a Jew< not from the tribe of Yehudah, is in the book of Esther. The first time is mucj earlier- before the birth of Yehudah!

We see it when Esau, wanting to show Isaac that he is obeying, takes a daughter of Ishmael as a wife instead of a Canaanitr. To show she is taking on Isaac's faith, she adopts the new name YEHUDIT, the female form of Yehudah. YEHUDIM actually means "Those who praise God".

So, all of Bnei Israel (children of Jacob) were considered to be the chosen peple and the term Yehudim can be applied to any of them.

Answer 2

Great question, but you're confusing the word with the people to whom it applies.

The Jewish ethnonym in Hebrew is יהודים , "Yehudim" (plural of יהודי "Yehudi") which is the ultimate origin of the English word "Jew". As you noted, the Hebrew name is derived from the name "Judah" (Yehudah יהודה). Originally the name referred to the territory alloted to the tribe traditionally descended from Judah the fourth son of Jacob. Both David and Solomon derive their lineage from Judah. After the splitting of the United Monarchy, the name was used for the southern kingdom containing not only the land of the tribe of Judah but also that of Benjamin and Simeon. With the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel, the kingdom of Judah became the sole Jewish state and the term y'hudi (יהודי) was applied to all Jews.

The Book of Esther is agreed to be the first place where the word Jew is used. The name is believed to come for "Yehud," the Persian name for Judea. The adding of the Yud at the end of the word signifies a "Resident of the land of Judea." The name appears in the Bible in a verb form, in Esther 8:17 which states, Many of the people of the land "mityahadim - became Yehudim/Judeans/Jews" because the fear of the Yehudim fell on them.

Answer 3

Winter

Answer 4

All of Jacob's sons were Jewish....
Being Jewish, I can tell you for a fact that the concept of "chosenness" does not imply any sense of superiority.
After all, Judaism is the ONLY religion which teaches that ALL moral people merit heaven, regardless of their religious beliefs, afiliations, or lack thereof.
Choseness does imply a special uniqueness.
Historically, it goes back to Abraham. Abraham lived in a world steeped in idolatry, which he concluded was contradicted by the reality of design in nature.
So Abraham came to a belief in God, and took upon himself the mission of teaching others of the monotheistic ideal. Abraham was even willing to suffer persecution for his beliefs. After years of enormous effort, dedication and a willingness to accept the responsibility to be God's representative in this world, God chose Abraham and his descendants to be the teachers of this monotheistic message.
In other words it is not so much that God chose the Jews; it is more accurate that the Jews (through Abraham) chose God.

Answer 5

Here are the words of Yahshua ha Mashiach Himself:

"You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, because salvation is of the Yehudim." - John 4:22; Psalms 147:19; Isaiah 2:3; 14:1; 56:6-8, Ezekiel 47:22-23, Zekariah 2:10-11; 8:23, Romans 2:17-29; 3:2; 9:4, Revelation 21:12 & 24

Do you who say you are Yehudim know what the Maritial Contract (Covenant; Instructions) with Yisrael is? Do you who say you are Yehudim (Rev.3:9), lie?

Answer 6

That's what the Jews say. I think Muslims would disagree. It's all about perspective.

I've always like to think, as an agnostic, that we're all God's people. We simply make enemies out of each other by dividing ourselves by our beliefs.

Belief guided by fear is unreliable at BEST. Real truth is found when you stop TRYING to feel something and just observe and think.

I can't speak for the Jews because I was brought up Christian, but I can declaratively state that the Christians definately aren't as right about God as they think they are.

You'll notice that as you study different religions, they all have one feature that's constant. That specific religion is True and the rest are false. Only those under such specified religion are cosidered to be God's chosen. All about perspective.

I believe that this is hardly news to anyone. My question to those of you who think you're right, what makes you think so? Aside from "personal" feelings and weekly re-inforcement of course. All religions claim those attributes.

Muslims are even required to attend at least one pilgrimage during their life-time and to me, they seem alot more serious about their religion than Christians do. Does this make them right?

I don't think so. Just because everyone around you agrees, doesn't mean you're on the right track. We used to believe the world was flat because of Christianity. They were wrong about the natural world more than once or twice, yet people retain their faith in a system that has proven itself to be mistaken when it claims to be quite infallable.

At what point do you stop dismissing such obvious contridictions? As far as I know, all organised religions have them.

Back to my orignal point. Either we're ALL God's chosen people or NONE of us are.

Why would he craete an entire race of people only to be inevitably damned? That seems to go against the idea of infallable wisdom.

If I was God, why the hell would I make it so damn difficult for my own creations to love me? Seems pretty counter-intuitive to me.

Answer 7

I dispute this because you think you are right just like every other sad organized religion. Time for you all to grow up and leave fairytale land.. I am pagan and my beleifs have been around much longer than yours. You all think you are chosen and the others are not. You are basicly saying the God and Godess choose some over others and that is not an issue i want to subscribe to

Answer 8

Good question! The truth is that the Jews of today (not including Jews by way of conversion) come from three tribes -Benjamin, Judah, and Levi. See, at one point in our history, there was a schism among the tribes, and we were split into two kingdoms. The northern kingdom included ten Israelite tribes, the southern kingdom included Judah, Benjamin, and the Levites were scattered throughout the land of Israel, with no consolidated territory.

Now, following the Assyrian conquest of the Northern Kingdom, the Ten Tribes were exiled, their fate uncertain, buried in the sands of time. That's why they're commonly referred to as the "Ten Lost Tribes" of Israel. The remaining Israelites, and converts to Judaism and their descendants, are the ones called "Jews" today. The term took hold because most of us ARE in fact Judean, but the truth is that while all Jews are (physically or spiritually) descended from Israel, they are not all Judeans by birth. Ever meet a Jew named "Cohen" or "Katz" or "Levy" or "Levine"? Odds are these Jews are actually from Levi (the first two are specifically from the priestly line, the "Kohanim"). But you'll never meet a religiously-observant Levite who says he's not a Jew. Sure, he's a Levite, but colloquially, Kohanim and Levi'im (Priests and Levites) are also called "Jews".

I hope this helps clarify things for you, and if you have any further questions, feel free to contact me directly.

For some essays discussing various theories as to the fate of the Ten Lost Tribes, check out the following:

http://www.moshiach.com/features/tribes/default.php

Answer 9

no
the jews descended frm Israel
who is Jacob
there that is the twelve sons
great thought tho.
Just read the context and do not listen to what people say to you

Answer 10

The other brothers are now part of the Jackson family: Michael, Randy, Tito, Jackie, Jermaine, and Marlon. They live at 2300 Jackson Street